Gurmukh Singh is pictured with daughters Navdeep Saini, 12, far left, Manpreet Saini, 15, second from left, and his wife, Balwinder Kauv. Singh spent five months in prison awaiting deportation but was temporarily freed, thanks to a campaign pushed by local youth activists in an Orange County group called "RAIZ," or "roots" in Spanish. Both he and his wife had applied for asylum from India 15 years ago after he was kidnapped and tortured due to his Sikh faith. His wife had been granted asylum and is a U.S. citizen, as are his daughters. Singh still faces threat of deportation and is waiting to hear final word on his case.

Victoria Delgado Arteaga, 48, gives a tearful account of her night in jail. The room of more than 70 goes silent as the San Juan Capistrano resident struggles to get through her story during a panel discussion featuring the Santa Ana-based RAIZ group at CSULB.

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Alexis Nava Teodoro, 26, RAIZ coordinator for Free The People deportation defense project, leads a discussion at CSULB where he is majoring in Chicano studies and global migration studies.

Navdeep Saini, 12, does homework with her father, Gurmukh Singh, as Manpreet Saini, 15, background left, waves goodbye to her mother who is off to work. The family is embroiled in an immigration nightmare.

Alexis Nava Teodoro was getting ready to go to sleep when a friend called: Immigration authorities picked up her aunt earlier that day. The family was frantic.

Victoria Delgado Arteaga, an undocumented resident from San Juan Capistrano with no criminal record and six children – four with temporary residency – was on her way home from grocery shopping when she was arrested.

Members of an organization called RAIZ, an Orange County group with some 15 young advocates working to stop deportations, hustled to free Arteaga.

The next morning, Nava Teodoro posted an online petition that was soon signed by more than 1,000 people. Hundreds of supporters flooded Border Patrol offices with phone calls. A call to Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s office prompted the staff to call immigration authorities and ask about the arrest. Another call to UC Irvine’s Immigrant Rights Clinic got legal help. Emails went out to Spanish-language media. The activists pulled together a vigil for that evening.

Arteaga knew nothing about the efforts to free her.

She spent the night of March 30 pacing a cell. The next night, she and five men were taken to a detention facility near the border. The men got out and went to prison. At least one of them, her cousin, would be deported within days. She was told to stay in the van. She would be going back to San Juan Capistrano.

That same night, less than 48 hours after her arrest, the grandmother of 11 children was returned to the area where she was stopped near the train station. Awaiting her were her family, community supporters and members of RAIZ, a Spanish word that translates to roots.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them,” said Arteaga, who acknowledged she has lived in the country for 14 years without proper documentation. “When I was in a cell, I didn’t know what was going on. I had never heard of RAIZ.”

IMMIGRATION STOPS

Immigration authorities say they consider a range of factors in determining whether someone should be deported.

“ICE exercises discretion on a case-by-case basis … to focus resources on the agency’s stated priorities,” said Andrew S. Muñoz, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He declined to talk specifically about RAIZ cases.

Border Patrol agents decide whether to detain an individual based on reasonable suspicion of illegal activity, and community pressure or backing from members of Congress does not affect the process, said spokesman Ralph A. Desio.

“There is no preferential treatment for those individuals backed by members of Congress or those who have garnered public support. Doing so would be both unethical and unlawful,” Desio said.

The Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector is responsible for the California border from Mexico to Oregon.

“The cities of San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Dana Point are routinely patrolled by agents deployed from the San Clemente Station,” Desio said.

They also patrol transportation routes, including the train station in San Juan Capistrano, because “smugglers often ride the train between San Diego and Los Angeles to circumvent inspection at the Border Patrol checkpoints,” Desio said.

“Whether along the land or coastal borders, the role of Border Patrol agents remains the same, it is to protect America and safeguard the American homeland at and beyond our borders,” Desio wrote in an email.

“Border Patrol agents steadfastly enforce the federal laws of the United States and serve the American public with vigilance, integrity and professionalism.”

Muñoz, of ICE, said decisions are based “on the merits of each case, the factual information provided to the agency and the totality of individuals’ circumstances, including any criminal history, their length of presence in the United States and ties to the community.”

ROOTS OF RAIZ

RAIZ got its start a little over two years ago but began working individual deportation cases only last fall. The name is an acronym for “resistencia, autonomia, igualdad, liderazgo,” or “resistance, autonomy, equality, leadership.”

Most of the members originally belonged to the OC DreamTeam, a group of undocumented college students that were part of a nationwide network seeking a federal law to legalize young people brought illegally to this country at an early age.

“We wanted to do more locally to stop deportations,” said Abraham Medina, a Santa Ana resident and one of the original RAIZ organizers.

Their work, all volunteer, has been noticed by immigration advocates, long-time Latino activists and others.

“RAIZ is an example of a group that has developed a sophisticated way for advocating for members of their own community,” said Annie Lai, co-director of UCI’s Immigrant Rights Clinic.

Amin David, founder of Los Amigos of Orange County, said, “They’re the young cadre of tigers coming on board. They demonstrate a lot of energy and earnest dedication. They’re really true to the mission.”

The group started out by researching how local policies impact deportations. For example, they have repeatedly called on Santa Ana to end its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house detainees at the city jail. And they helped shine a spotlight on Orange County’s Probation Department. UCI’s School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic issued a report last December that revealed Orange County had referred more children to immigration authorities than any other county in California.

Then came the case of Gurmukh Singh, a Garden Grove father of two children who faced deportation to his native India.

Singh and his wife had sought asylum years ago in the United States after he said he was kidnapped and tortured because of his Sikh faith. His wife was granted asylum. He was not. But he said he was not aware of his status or notified of a deportation order against him. When he showed up last year for what he thought was an interview with immigration authorities, he was handcuffed in front of his crying children and taken away.

Singh spent 5½ months in detention. But with the help of several groups, mainly RAIZ and Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Los Angeles, Singh was released last fall.

“We didn’t know a lot about this. So we started with a (RAIZ) campaign,” said Singh’s daughter, Manpreet Saini 15, a freshman at Rancho Los Alamitos High School. “We did phone rallies. We did phone banking. We got letters from other organizations, that passed it on to their members. There was so much more. I’m really grateful.”

Singh’s case is pending, and a final decision has not been made.

PUTTING ON PRESSURE

The people RAIZ helps have a range of backgrounds.

One Long Beach mother, for example, was arrested for shoplifting. Her alleged crime did not merit transferring her to immigration authorities under a new California law called the Trust Act, RAIZ members believed.

“At the end of the day, if she were a U.S. citizen she would have been released,” Nava Teodoro said. “We don’t like the narrative of the good and the bad immigrant,” he said.

Part of the group’s strategy is to tap into national networks. One coalition that sends out RAIZ alerts to its member organizations is the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

“ICE is an organization that works best in the cover of darkness,” said Tania Unzueta, an NDLON organizer based in Washington, D.C. “We realized every time we took a case public, it was more likely to be resolved in a positive way.”

“It’s the community,” said Lai of UCI, “that is putting the pressure on ICE or Border Patrol to do the right things in these cases.”

There are other groups nationwide putting a spotlight on deportations and what they say is overzealous enforcement by the Obama administration. Some are made up of volunteers, like RAIZ. Others have paid staff members. Among the most effective, Unzueta said, are the New Orleans Congress of Day Laborers and the Organized Communities Against Deportations in Chicago. .

In Southern California, youth-led groups similar to RAIZ include the Los Angeles Immigrant Coalition, the Dream Team Los Angeles and the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Coalition, said Luis Ojeda, an organizer for the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, which works with 12 member groups across the state advocating for immigrant rights.

While declining to identify Arteaga, government spokesman Desio said that on March 30 agents patrolling the San Juan Capistrano train station for smuggling activity “encountered a female illegal alien.” The agent arrested her. But during processing, they determined she was not a flight risk. Border Patrol released her on her own recognizance until a court hearing to determine whether she can stay in the country.

A spokeswoman for Sanchez’s office said staff members advise callers on resources. She said the office doesn’t advocate for individuals, but will ask immigration authorities about specific cases.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, helped Singh with his case and continues to monitor it, said Irantzu Pujadas, a spokeswoman in his district office.

“Sometimes when a congressional person calls ICE or any agency, it can have some weight. But at the end of the day, it’s up to the agency to do their job,” she said.

Pujadas called RAIZ “the most active group I’ve worked (with) in this office.”

“They’re real advocates. They’re young. They’re energetic,” Pujadas said. “They don’t care whether they’re politically correct or not. They’re just there to help the community. I would say they’re more militant than other groups.”

Arteaga’s case drew wide attention in Spanish-language media, including reports on TV networks Telemundo and Univision. A group of Saddleback College students who live in San Juan Capistrano were inspired to organize “to advocate for our undocumented community,” said one of the students, Tania Carrillo, 21.

Jose Moreno, president of the Anaheim City School District, was once undocumented and the youngest in a family who lived in Orange County illegally until the 1986 amnesty approved by Congress. Moreno said RAIZ is the first in the county to combine community pressure, legal action, social media and other tactics to advocate for individuals facing deportation.

“They are acting on our community conscience,” he said. “And in the best tradition of American democracy.”

Nava Teodoro said his group is needed in Orange County: “There were groups working on immigration reform. But no one was really standing up against deportations. If we’re not going to defend ourselves, no one will.”

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